Shannon Leveille
CJUS 320
11/14/2022
Prisoner’s Rights Assignment
There are four legal foundations when it comes to a prisoner’s rights which are: the United
States Constitution, Federal Statutes, State Statutes, and State Constitutions. While prisoners
may not have full Constitutional Rights, they are still protected by certain Amendments because
they are still American citizens regardless if they are incarcerated or not.
The First Amendment protects not only the rights of prisoners to send and receive mail, but
also the rights of free people to communicate with prisoners. The Fifth Amendment protects
them from having to testify if they may only incriminate themselves by doing so, while the Sixth
Amendment entitles them to a speedy and public trial. The Eighth Amendment is for the
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and also there to make sure there isn’t
excessive bail set for their case. Also, the Fourteenth Amendment says that with the due process
of law inmates are protected from unequal treatment on the basis of race, sex, and creed.
There is also the Model Sentencing and Corrections Act, which was created in 1978 by the
Uniform Law Commission, that states that a confined person has a protected interests in freedom
from discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or sex as well. Meanwhile,
they are still protected by the First Amendment and they have freedom to speech and religion,
but only to the extent that these rights do not interfere with their status as an inmate. It also
ensures them the right to be present when and if their legal mail is opened. However, officials are
only allowed to open a prisoners’ legal mail to check for contraband, not to read any of it.
It seems that “society,” in general, considers prisoners to be wrong doers and presumes that
the mistreatment towards them is considered to be reasonable by nature. Yet, they are failing to
remember the primary purpose of the punishment was put in place to protect society from crime
and deter the offender from repeating the crime, not for the offender to be treated inhuman by the
system.
As for pretrial detention, most states now have laws that specifically address victims interests
related to pretrial release. There are victims’ rights laws in California, Delaware, Illinois,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Texas that specifically tell judges to
consider the safety of victims when determining conditions to pretrial release. Other states have
laws that address victim-specific rights and protections in pretrial stages. However, there are
fourty-one states that have a state constitutional right to bail. Also, most of those states have a
constitutional provision mirroring the federal Eighth Amendment prohibition on excessive bail.
Even though every state currently authorizes court to order release on cash or other secured bond
in at least some cases, while some of them have financial conditions that can be used.
Reguardless of all of this though, pretrial detention is still used, but mainly for those charged
with the most serious of crimes since most states and statutes encourage pretrial release for
offenders.
Since prisoners still have rights, there are things they can do if they feel their rights have
been violated. Also, prison officials have a legal duty under the Eighth Amendment of the
Constitution to refrain from using excessive force and to protect prisoners from assault by other
prisoners as well. However, there are five ways for inmates to challenge the legality of their
confinement. The first way is a state habeas corpus action. A writ of habeas corpus is an order
from a court to produce a prisoner in court so that the court can determine whether the prisoner is
being detained legally. Federal and state prisoners may file habeas corpus remedies. (pg 314.
McGraw Hill). So being the second was a federal habeas corpus, the third is a state tort lawsuit.
A tort is a civil wrong, a wrongful act, or a wrongful breach of duty, other than a breach of
contract, whether intentional or accidental, from which injury to another occurs. (McGraw Hill).
The fourth is a federal civil rights lawsuit which federal and state inmates can both file this suit
in federal court alleging civil rights violations by corrections officials. The last thing is a petition
for injunctive relief, which is a judicial order to do or refrain from doing a particular act. It may
be claiming adverse effects of a health, safety, or sanitation procedure and can also involve the
entire correctional facility. (McGraw Hill). As with all of those, it does not guarantee that one
side is right and the other is wrong, it only guarantees that it will be looked into and the inmate
will be heard.
Reguardless of their wrong-doing, prisoners are still people just like the rest of us and should
still be treated correctly. If we remember what it says in Hebrew 13: 3, “Remember those in
prison, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves
were suffering bodily.”
References:
The Holy Bible. (CSB). (2020)
McGraw Hill (2022)
National Conference of State Legislatures. Victims’ Pretrial Release Rights & Protections. (2022)
ncsl.org/research/civil-and-criminal-pretrial-release-victims-rights-and-protections.asp
Pretrialrights.org (2020)
